Promoting the life and legacy of Rachel Carson, 5/27/1907 - 4/14/1964. Fostering a culture of Sentinel Lions who share Rachel's ethics and values. Working for sustained political and cultural change to prioritize public health.

The MBTA has given notice that the Green Line tracks will be sprayed with weed killers sometime between July 23 and August 3.Roundup-Pro will be sprayed on the main tracks and Roundup-Pro and Oust will be used in the yards.The Bay Colony Rail Road will be spraying Roundup-Pro on the same dates.

GreenCAP is disappointed to learn about the MBTA and the Bay Colony RR plans.Unfortunately, municipalities have no legal power to stop it.

Back in July 1995, GreenCAP received over 50 calls in response to the “public alert” that GreenCAP mailed to residents, day care centers, nursing homes and other property owners near the tracks.The Newton Board of Aldermen passed a resolution requesting a public meeting. The scheduled spray was postponed. There was a large public meeting at the Newton Free Library with representatives of the MBTA, city officials and state representatives.

Both the public and city and state officials strongly objected to the MBTA’s pesticide use.Citizens questioned the need for spraying. They expressed serious concerns about the hazards of the weed killers, Roundup and Oust, about the potential for pesticide drift and run off to surrounding properties, about the MBTA's lack of communication, and about the way the spraying would be conducted.

A task force including the Newton Health Department and MBTA officials was formed to develop alternative ecologically safe approaches to weed control but did not meet.

In 1999, in response to the MA Turnpike Authority’s and Conrail’s plan to use herbicides on rights-of-way inNewton, Mayor David B. Cohen wrote letters expressing deep concern that the use of herbicides presented an unacceptable risk to residents.He pointed out that Newton was committed to alternatives such as hardy ground covers, low maintenance vegetation, mechanical weed control and other low impact non-chemical techniques.

Mayor Cohen, a sponsor of the Rivers and Wetland Protection Acts as a state legislator, wrote,“I am very concerned about the immediate exposure of herbicide drift to Newton residents, as well as the runoff into water supplies, wells, and wetlands. Such lands run close to our homes, yards, gardens, wells and waterways and they should be protected.”

Today, our objections are stronger than ever.All pesticides are poison.Pesticides can be inhaled, absorbed through the skin or swallowed in treated areas as well as down wind and down stream.And they are unnecessary as alternative non-toxic weed control approaches are known to be both effective and economical.

GreenCAP urges anyone who objects to the pesticide spraying to let local and state public officials know. (Addresses below.)

Citizens who want to learn more about the hazards ofRoundUp and other weed killers should call 617 965-1995 and leave a message for GreenCAP. (Ask for Glyphosate (RoundUp) Herbicide Fact Sheet from theJournal of Pesticide Reform. The full text is available as a PDF file. See the brief summary below.)

ADVISORY:According to the US EPA, everyone should minimize exposure to pesticides, especially children, the elderly, pregnant women and individuals with health problems.

Residents who live near the Green Line or whose neighbors use pesticides for tree or lawn care should follow these steps:

Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide widely used to kill unwanted plants both in agriculture and in nonagricultural landscapes. Estimated use in the U.S. is between 38 and 48 million pounds per year. Most glyphosate-containing products are either made or used with a surfactant, chemicals that help glyphosate to penetrate plant cells.

Glyphosate-containing products are acutely toxic to animals, including humans. Symptoms include eye and skin irritation, headache, nausea, numbness, elevated blood pressure, and heart palpitations. The surfactant used in a common glyphosate product (Roundup) is more acutely toxic than glyphosate itself; the combination of the two is yet more toxic.

Given the marketing of glyphosate herbicides as benign, it is striking that laboratory studies have found diverse effects in all standard categories of laboratory toxicology testing. These include medium-term toxicity (salivary gland lesions), long-term toxicity (inflamed stomach linings), genetic damage (in human blood cells), effects on reproduction (reduced sperm counts in rats; increased frequency of abnormal sperm in rabbits), and carcinogenicity (increased frequency of liver tumors in male rats and thyroid cancer in female rats).

In studies of people (mostly farmers) exposed to glyphosate herbicides, exposure is associated with an increased risk of miscarriages, premature birth, and the cancer non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Glyphosate has been called "extremely persistent" by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and half lives of over 100 days have been measured in field tests in Iowa and New York. Glyphosate has been found in streams following agricultural, urban, and forestry applications.

Glyphosate treatment has reduced populations of beneficial insects, birds, and small mammals by destroying vegetation on which they depend for food and shelter.

In laboratory tests, glyphosate increased plants' susceptibility to disease and reduced the growth of nitrogen-fixing bacteria.